It’s rare that a single article demonstrates such a sweeping misread of the forces of wealth in free society, but Frank Rich’s recent New York Time article, “Who Will Stand Up to the Superrich?“, proves that such events do occur.

Right of the bat, Rich draws the wrong conclusion in his account of wealthy Republican candidates who collectively spent deep into nine figures trying to get elected.  I say God bless ‘em. At least we have a system that allows such people to try.   Advertising, marketing and communications firms around the country positively love these people, and thousands of employees probably owe their jobs to them.  Indeed, to argue that money doesn’t matter in political campaigns is to argue that the entire advertising industry is a fraud.   However, where Rich says these candidates “tried to buy Senate seats and governor’s mansions”, can we finally agree that that’s simply not possible, and move on?

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Like old-growth timber succumbing to a band of lumberjacks, incumbent Democrats in Congress crashed to Earth in record numbers Tuesday night.   Where there’s been a steady call for politicians to “do something” about the economy, about jobs, about Wall Street, about the environment, about everything, at least one Congressional district showed that they want “something else” to be done instead.   I’m referring to my own Congressional District 19 in New York, where a newcomer to politics, Dr. Nan Hayworth, ran against the Democratic incumbent, John Hall.   It is a tale worth telling, and emulating.

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